When Gareth opened his eyes, he was vaguely confused as to why his throat was still hurting.

He had always thought that when you died and went to Heaven, mortal things like pain would be a thing of the past.

For a moment he vaguely wondered if he had gone to Hell, but then he heard the screaming and the shouting and soon Tim was looking down at him, sporting a fresh fist print on his face where Gareth's father had hit him.

"Are you all right?" Tim asked, holding Gareth's head in his lap.

"What…" Gareth winced at the pain in his throat and he slowly struggled to sit up, coughing hoarsely as he watched in faint surprise as his father was being wrestled down to the ground by a combination of police and male members of his family.

"When I came to and saw him strangling you…I screamed as loud as I could and jumped on him." Tim admitted with a shrug. "That alerted the others inside to what was happening."

"I…I told…you…" Gareth struggled. "Not to…fight him!"

"He was going to kill you." Tim pointed out, and they stopped and watched as Brock was soon dragged into a cop car.

"How would that look to your mum if I let you die?" he asked. "Besides…You promised that we would have sex later today, mate!"

Gareth slowly smiled at this and he shook his head slightly as he was helped onto his feet by Tim, leaning on him as some of his family came over to see how bad the damage was to his throat.

…

The rest of the wake was uneventful and Gareth's voice healed as purple and blue bruises slowly formed around his throat.

He sat down in the front chair with Tim on his left and his grandmother on his right and he found that the only really hard part after being almost murdered was trying to explain to his grandmother what was going on.

The elderly woman had come in thinking that she was burying her oldest daughter, Gareth's aunt Susan; a smiling older woman who had pulled Tim over to the side to gently but firmly warn him that if he ever broke Gareth's heart, that she would be forced to break his pecker off and feed it to the wolves.

Gareth stood beside his grandmother with one hand resting on her back lightly as she looked down at his mother in the casket and he bit his lip lightly as she started to speak.

"Susan looks so peaceful doesn't she, Gar-bear?" she asked.

"Nana…"

"It's not right for a mother to bury her child, but at least Susan looks happy."

"Nana, that's not Susan." Gareth corrected her gently. She blinked and looked at him in confusion and he winced at the slight pang of hurt in his chest.

"Not Susan? Who is it then?"

"Nana, that's me mum."

"Alina?" she asked. "But…how?"

"She had cancer, Nana." Gareth explained. "It was eating away at her and then da' came barging into her room and was screaming at her and for some reason her body…her body finally just let her go."

"So…that's my Alina in there?" Gareth slowly wrapped his arms around her shoulders as he saw her starting to grow upset, and he kissed the top of her head.

"Yes, Nana."

It had taken a full hour for her to stop crying.

…

After the wake, Tim waited just outside of the door, smiling as he watched Gareth saying good-bye to his family for the day. Tomorrow would be the last day of the wake and then the funeral would end it all for good.

Gareth shyly accepted condolences for the loss of his mother, as well as words of encouragement when it came to dealing with his father.

"You better not hurt him."

Blinking, Tim looked to his left and found a young man with soft blonde hair and a silver hoop in each ear standing next to him. His blue eyes were looking straight forward, but Tim realized that he was blind when he saw that the blue slowly dissolved to become paler and paler until finally his pupils looked white

"Who…"

"I'm his cousin." He answered, slowly reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of cigarettes, tapping them against the palm of his hand.

"Hello?" Tim said lamely.

"I'm just warning you now…My cousin Gareth has been through a lot today, aye? We've all known that he was gay, but we just wanted to wait until he was comfortable with coming out with it! Especially considering who his father was!"

Tim watched in amazement as Gareth's cousin skillfully took out a single cigarette and then lit it without dropping it or burning himself.

"You're going to be his lover now, yeah?" he asked, letting smoke drift from his flaring nostrils in lazy tendrils.

"I suppose so, yes." Tim said, unable to deny it anymore.

"Then you had better not break his heart." Gareth's cousin growled. "Or me and my mates will come after you! I may be blind, but I can still kick your arse! Got it?"

"I wouldn't dream of hurting him. He's been through enough in his life."

Ferris nodded at this, taking a long drag before blowing it out into the air.

"Oy, Ferris!" Gareth laughed as he stepped outside, wrapping an arm around Tim's middle. "Are you threatening Tim all ready?"

"Of course I am." Ferris said with a shrug, finishing his cigarette before flicking it away. "You know I only have your best interest at heart!" he added with a smile.

Gareth smiled and nodded and he gave his cousin a hug, laughing softly.

"Remember when you saved me from that perverted couple?" he asked.

"How could I forget that? They had your wrists duct taped together along with your ankles in nothing but your boxers and your socks from what me mate Joey told me!" Ferris snickered. "Now run along and go get some sex all ready! God knows you need some!"

Gareth laughed and shook his head, and he then turned to Tim and shrugged.

"Me cousin Ferris is a sex fiend!" he said simply. This caused Ferris to throw his head back and laugh.

"At least I get some regularly!" he countered. Gareth snorted and shook his head and he walked with Tim towards his car.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" he called after Ferris.

"Course you will, cousin!" Ferris answered and Gareth nodded and got into Tim's car.

"I could cook for us if you want." He offered as Tim started the car and Tim looked at him in surprise.

"You can cook?"

"Course I can!"

Tim shook his head, laughing softly.

"You're full of surprises, mate."

"You're going to find out a few more by the end of the night." Gareth added, kissing his cheek tenderly.